“When I heard they were making a film of The Prestige, Christopher Priest’s novel about feuding 19th-century stage magicians, my first response was a fan’s excitement. The Prestige is a book I love, so I couldn’t wait to see it translated onto the screen: to admire the gloomy music-hall Victoriana of the setting; watch Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman embody the duelling conjurers Borden and Angier; find out, in short, what the director Christopher Nolan would make of Priest’s novel (his tricksy, sinister films suggested he was perfect for the job). My second response was a fan’s jealousy. The Prestige is a book I love. I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of all those movie people getting their hands on it.”